Everyone that I have ever heard complain about how BMI is a terrible metric for determining ideal weight because it doesn't take muscle mass into account has been a big, flabby sphere of goo. For every body builder with low body fat with a "severely obese" BMI there are probably 10,000 couch potatoes of equal BMI who get wheezy just biatching about BMI.

Rapmaster2000:Thunderpipes: Hobodeluxe: Thunderpipes: 11% unemployment, family incomes down, growth barely in the positive, exploding debt, but good thing the stock market is good this month.

Can't wait for the next crash.

Austerity and spending cuts have consequences. At least the GOP got what they wanted.

The ones that took effect 7 days ago? What happened the last 4 years? Obama was cutting spending the last 4 years?

Don't be stupid.

The Tea Party Express swept into power and cut the head off of bloated government spending. Libs like you try to say that Obama does everything good, but Real Americans know that the massive reduction in government spending growth was due to Real Leadership from patriots like Michelle Bachman.

Michelle Bachman is taking care of business. Suck it, lib.

Liberal nanny internet state tried to stop me from posting THE TRUTH. I have defeated you Obama. Freedom has won.

Lt. Col. Angus:Basically, *just* a market account.... i.e. can I learn to see market and industry trends, and at least keep up with, if not get out ahead of some?

I'd imagine that taking $10K and turning it into $5K in twelve months time won't encourage my wife to let me invest more.

Very smart people make the decisions for those market accounts, and your money can be diversified in accordance with your risk-aversion. I put money into a Vanguard STAR fund every time I get paid via direct-deposit. We've adjusted our lifestyle so that I don't miss this money, and it feels really good to login every week and see it grow.

I am pleased with the return I've been seeing, but I can also sell off some shares on a whim if I need access to that money. They'll cut a check or direct-deposit into my checking account in a couple days. It's essentially a savings account that's tied to investment portfolio performance, and I'm okay with the maintenance costs at 0.34%

Once I have accumulated some amount that I haven't decided yet, I'll be putting some of the money into specific stocks so that I can play, but for me this is far superior to any bank account I could get.

somedude210:untaken_name: There are a lot of anti-unionists. I'm one, for example. I've seen unions in action (inaction).

And I understand that, but the purpose of the unions were to protect workers from being mistreated by their employers (crap wages, horrible working conditions, etc), so while they've become a pain in the ass, at their heart, they still serve a purpose, but if you really want to get rid of unions, then you should be advocating fair wages that a person can live on, and if you can do that without needing the unions, then what do you need the unions for?

That's how you beat the unions, not do everything in your power to piss them off

It's the unholy alliance between government and industry that creates the worker-unfriendly environment. When competition is difficult, workers must take what is given or nothing. When barriers to entry are low (especially artificial ones), then it's easier for workers to leave one job for another, or even to leave a job to start their own competing company in their former industry. When the companies have the backing of the government and the police powers of the state, you get things like cartels, like the ones that run every major industry in the world. Unions are simply the pendulum swinging too far in one direction, while "company towns" are the pendulum swinging too far in the other direction. These things are cyclical, but the cycles are longer than our lifespans so it's tough for us to perceive it.

Yeah, no-one actually cares right now because the figure isn't useful for political football.Expect it to be relatively ignored (as January's number was) until March and April's numbers provide ammo for arguing about the effect of the sequester.Then you'll see Jan/Feb numbers in reference to March/April's, with people drawing trend lines and making up narratives however they need, to justify whatever position they already held.

I'm glad NPR made this point. I'm tired of hearing crowing about how things are better, people are better, everything is better when in reality people are still being paid like crap but corporations are still making record profits.

This guy can not, nor will not, stand for anything but limited government, lower taxes, and 4XL Dale Earnheart t-shirts! He gets everything from Walmart, his entertainment, his food, his clothing ... even his trashcans to throw all his old Walmart trash in! I love this guy!